The Way Home
by nattieb
Summary: A strange object may have the power to send Rose home, but is the Doctor really there or is it all in her mind. AU after 'The Unicorn and the Wasp.'
1. Chapter 1

Rose groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. She could already tell the headache that was forming behind her eyes was going to be massive and she kept her eyes shut not willing, or ready, to face the world beyond. She could envision the scene that awaited her when she finally did open her eyes. She knew her mother would be in a chair next to the bed, waiting for her daughter to awake. No doubt Jackie had already scared the nursing staff away with her constant barrage of questions and concerns. Rose knew that her mum wouldn't allow a pesky thing like a headache to stop the lecture that she meant to give; hospital bed or not, Jackie Tyler would have something to say about her daughter's latest escapade. Pete would be standing behind her mother, hand resting on her shoulder; he would notice Rose's distress and leave to fetch a nurse, after silently asking Rose if she was okay. Jake and Mickey would be hovering outside the door with Tony, giving her parents some time before swooping into regale her with the story of her fall and to give her a good ribbing about fainting while on assignment.

Rose tried to remember exactly what had happened. She couldn't be sure if she had fainted or fallen. She shifted her body as she tried to remember, noting that the hospital bed felt more like grated ground then the comfortable mattresses found in the Torchwood med center. That could only mean one thing, the injuries she sustained must have been serious enough that there'd not been time to get her back to Torchwood. She must be in a local hospital bed. Rose had heard stories from other unfortunate agents about the lack of comfortable beds in local hospitals, now she understood what they meant. How could a person be expected to get well if they couldn't even get comfortable? Rose shifted, hoping that she might find a more comfortable position, but it was of no use. As she settled back into her previous position, she tried to piece together what had actually happened and what she might have to face when she finally decided to open her eyes.

She and Jake had been called out to an early morning crash site, mere hours after finishing with a late-night weevil retrieval. She had barely put her head on her pillow when her mobile had rung and the Torchwood dispatcher had informed her that there had been an unidentified crash outside of Whitehall and the presence of herself and Agent Simmonds was requested. The only bit of joy that Rose got out of that call was she got to call her partner with the news that the long weekend he had bragged about was now officially cut short. When she'd called, Jake had complained that his holiday had to be the shortest in Torchwood history- an hour. Rose had simply laughed and told him that he could try again next weekend. Jake had picked her up in front of her flat fifteen minutes later and grumpily asked her why Mickey couldn't have come instead of him.

After they'd arrived at Whitehall, they had stood by the car, huddling against it and each other in the January chill while the techs had swept the area looking for what had fallen. Someone had handed them both a cup of coffee and had they clung to the Styrofoam cups as they watched the search, not wanting to escape to the warmth and protection of the car lest they were needed. Rose, awoken more by the weather than by the coffee, had made a joke to Jake about how he should have been on his way to the sunny (and warm) coast of France. Jake had scowled at her, but she was saved from any retort by the excited yells about 500 yards off. They raced to where the group of techies had huddled, all pointing to an object on the ground. Rose had to push her way through the group in order to see the object.

It was beautiful. An oblong chrysalis that was no bigger than the size of Rose's palm. It seemed to be in a state of flux as the color kept moving from a brilliant pink to a deep midnight blue. Rose had been entranced and reached out to touch it, but was quickly pulled back by an admonishing Jake. And he was right, she did know better than to touch a piece of alien tech before knowing what it was. She crouched down to get a better look, taking care to keep a safe distance. The chrysalis looked like it might be a container for something smaller - a small faint line ran across it, only visible when it was at its lightest pink. Rose had called for a pair of gloves in order to examine the object, and it had been then that it had happened. Someone behind had pushed forward, jostling Rose and causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground. She had instinctively put her arms out in front of her in order to break her fall. She felt her left hand land on the chrysalis and slip, still clutching the foreign object. The last thing she remembered, as her head still continued to rush towards the street, was Jake's frantic yell.

Back in the present, Rose knew that it was time that she opened her eyes and face her family. Jake would be able to fill her in on what had happened and let her know where the chrysalis was now. Taking one last deep breath she opened her eyes. But there was no Jackie in a chair, no Pete standing at her side. No brother or best friends waiting outside the door. In fact there was no door. There was also no uncomfortable hospital bed. Not even a hospital. There was simply an empty darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Part II

Donna trudged through the mud back to where they had left the TARDIS, muttering and pulling off the twigs and dead leaves that clung to her body, her expression stormy. She knew the Doctor was about 40 yards behind her and she was waiting till they made it to the TARDIS before she gave him a rather large piece of her mind, hoping she might calm down a bit during the walk.

_Fat chance_, Donna decided as she realized the more she thought about their day the angrier she became. He had promised her a planet that was peaceful, had golden beaches, and enough shopping to satisfy even her passion. The Doctor had landed them on that planet, only with a "slight" miscalculation. As if 1,999 years early could be called slight. Donna scoffed as she recalled the Doctor's admonition that the mistake "could have easily been avoided if she hadn't distracted him by standing too close to the console."His "slight" miscalculation had placed them right in the middle of a worker's strike.

The Doctor, with his maniac grin, had grabbed her hand and told her to run. He'd clearly been delighted to exchange a day of shopping and relaxing for the unexpected excitement of riotous workers. They were keeping well ahead of the pitchforks and the purple goop, which smelled strangely like a mix of rotten eggs and daisies, the workers were throwing with the pitchforks when Donna was hit on the back of the head by a rather large handful of the odorous goop.

She had come to a full stop, determined to turn and face her attackers, when she was hit with another handful; this time they got her in the face. The gelatinous slime oozed down her body, clinging to her arms and legs and, more importantly, ruining her new shoes. Furious at the Doctor, at the workers, and at the planet in general, Donna had turned on the leaders of the rebellion. She had given them the full range of the Noble fury, determined to make them pay for what they had done to her fabulous new shoes.

Two hours later the Doctor had saved her from imprisonment by the rebel leaders, quelled the strike, and saved all the shops. And Donna had just stood by the entire time, covered in the purple goop and feeling her fury grow. His planet-saving complete, the Doctor had told her that the goop was harmless and would easily wash out and then had wisely suggested they head back to the TARDIS where she could clean up in the privacy of her own room. Donna had simply turned around and made her way back to where they had parked the ship, her anger and frustration mounting each moment.

"It's a peaceful planet, Donna," she muttered sarcastically, repeating the words the Doctor had told her hours before. "Nothing bad had happened there for years." She pushed back some branches and entered the clearing where they had left the TARDIS, relieved to finally be home. As she pulled out her key to open the door, she continued her mutterings, slightly louder now so the Doctor could hear.

"Rose and Martha loved it here, you tell me," Donna said acidly , "Did they love the purple goop too? Bet it looked lovely on them."

"Donna." She could hear the warning in his voice and she supposed she was being rude, but decided he couldn't really expect anything else, so she continued.

"Peaceful planet, my left foot. You promised that this time we would have something relaxing; some place that we weren't running for our lives. Tell me, did you really pass your driving test or is that just one more thing that you might have exaggerated, Martian Boy?"

"Oi." Came the indignant response from behind her.

Before he could answer she jabbed her key into the lock and turned it, grateful that the door opened easily. She stalked up the ramp, warring with the decision to wait for the Doctor to arrive and give him a rather large piece of her mind or head straight for the shower. Deciding she'd make a bigger impact in giving him what for if she was still covered in the goop, she moved around toward the jumpseat, determined to wait for him. Just as she was reaching to pull a piece of the purple slime from her fringe, she tripped over something that hadn't been there when they'd left the ship this morning.

She put out her arms to catch herself and cursed as her hands hit the grated floor of the TARDIS. She closed her eyes, absorbing the pain and willing the awful day to be over. Slowly she pushed herself up, looked down toward her feet, and realized that the 'what' she'd tripped over wasn't a 'what' at all, but a 'who'. Donna was instantly on guard and quickly stood up, ready for anything. When the woman didn't move Donna began to relax a little and took a closer look at the TARDIS's new visitor. Questions on how she had breached the TARDIS defenses could wait; this woman appeared to be in a coma, and she was clutching something tightly in her left hand.

She registered the TARDIS door opening behind her and she distantly heard the Doctor calling out to her, launching into apologies and excuses as he shrugged off his coat, but her eyes stayed trained on the intruder.

"Honestly, Donna," she heard the Doctor say as he threw his coat over the support strut and started up the ramp to send them back into the vortex, "you're taking this well. I was expecting a good old-fashioned Noble berating to start before I could get the TARDIS door closed. Of course, this silence could be to simply lull me into a false sense of security. Is that what you're doing?"

She didn't answer him, her mind focused instead on how she should bring up the fact that there was an unconscious woman lying on the floor of his TARDIS.

"Donna? You alright?" He'd finally seemed to notice her distraction and began walking a bit more quickly around the console to reach her.

"Watch out." Donna said as she shot out her arm to stop him from tripping over the woman also. The Doctor looked down at the woman on the grating.

"Well now, who's this," he asked, putting on his specs and bending down to get a better look at the woman's face. "The TARDIS didn't tell me we were expecting comp–"

Donna, who had been examining the woman's face as well, looked back at the Doctor as his voice trailed off. His face had blanched and he looked as if he was staring at a ghost.

Donna reached for his arm, hoping to steady him.

"Doctor?" she asked. He didn't respond.

"Doctor?" she asked again, her voice louder. Still no response.

Now more concerned about his well-being than she was about the stranger in her home, she clutched at his arm and forced him to look at her.

"Doctor!?" Her voice was louder and something in its tone must have caught his attention. His eyes snapped to hers and he finally registered some spark of recognition that she'd been speaking.

"Who is she, Doctor?"

He looked back down at the woman, the expression in his eyes somewhere between heartbreak and terror. With this look Donna also grew more nervous. Who ever this woman was the Doctor knew her and it wasn't good.

"It's impossible. There was no way, no way. I checked, Donna. I checked for months and months." He began pacing around the prone form, his hand going to his hair and his eyes frantic. "She was gone, Donna. Lost."

With that one simple word, everything clicked into place for Donna and she wasn't sure if she was relieved or even more terrified. This was Rose and this changed everything. Immediately she dropped to her knees and checked for a pulse. There was a thready one; Rose needed medical attention immediately. She looked at the Doctor but he just stood there, staring at the both of them, seemingly incapable of comprehending what was right before his eyes.

"Doctor," Donna said, her voice calm but assertive, "she's going to need your help. There will be time later for explanations." She stood and walked to where he stood.

"This is real, Doctor," she reassured him as she took his hand. "That is Rose and she needs your help."

Her words finally seemed to resonate with him and he nodded.

"Yes, med bay. Now." He bent down and scooped Rose up into his arms.

Donna followed behind him as he quickly navigated the corridors to the med bay, the longed-for shower momentarily forgotten. She watched as he laid Rose tenderly on one of the beds there. She watched as he scanned Rose, growing frustrated in his lack of finding anything to cause her unconscious state. She watched as he noticed the object clutched in her left hand. And she watched he reached to remove it from her grasp and promptly fell unconscious.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor opened his eyes but saw only total darkness. So, not actually awake then. At least, not physically. That was interesting. The Doctor did a quick assessment of his body and realized that he had blacked out. He was astonished. Time Lords never blacked out; occasionally they slipped into brief meditative trances but to black out… that was primitive, that was, well, that was almost human. He shook his head in disgust and stood. It was time to find a way out.

As he looked around, he marveled at the thought that he might have actually fallen unconscious. It had something to do with whatever Rose had been clutching in her—he stopped cold in his thoughts.

Rose. She had come back. Somehow the impossible had happened and she had found him. He allowed himself to grin. This was good; the universe was probably unraveling at the seams, which was very, very bad, but this was good. Now he just had to find a way to wake himself up, wake Rose up, and save the universe.

He began wandering in the darkness, hoping that he might find a way out. Nothing seemed familiar. There were no familiar memories to get lost in; no subconscious thoughts to check on. There was simply Nothing. The Doctor began to wonder if there were not more sinister motives afoot when he heard a voice that froze him.

"'Bout time you showed up." The voice came from behind him and he spun around to face it. He recognized the voice, but even knowing who was behind him did not ready him for the shock of seeing Rose face to face. She looked all at once tired, angry, frustrated, resigned, and more beautiful than he even remembered.

He stammered for the words, struggling for what to say. He had once allowed himself to imagine about this moment; once many years ago he had spent just a bit of time going over what he would say if he ever saw Rose again. Now thought all speeches, flowery or otherwise, seemed to have deserted him and all he found himself saying was, "What?!?"

"Been waitin', haven't I? Figure you'd show up sooner or later." Rose sounded disinterested, as if this thought sharing was something common and mundane. The Doctor wondered if she understood what was going on.

"Rose-" he tried, but was cut off.

"You don't usually stand here stammerin' though," she said with a small smile on her lips.

"Rose, I don't think-" he tried again, and was once again stopped.

"Mostly we hug. You tell me that you're comin' and then I wake up back home. So, can we just get that over with? I'm ready to wake up."

Automatically he reached for her and pulled her into his arms. He had forgotten how good she felt in his arms. He'd forgotten how she fit right into the hollow of his shoulder; how she'd rest her head against his chest and how warm her hands felt and how soft her breath was. He took a moment to relish in the moment – a moment to forget what was going on around them and back on the TARDIS. Instead he just held her in his arms and clung to her. He buried his face in her hair and sighed; it was better than he remembered.

"You feel more real," Rose finally said, smiling against his chest. "The drugs they're giving me must be better than normal. I can even smell you. You still wear that stuff I got you in Brossadsola."

"Brossaosole," he corrected automatically. "Brossadsola was the planet with the purple skies and pink grass."

"Oh, that's right." They were both silent for a moment, lost in memories. "Miss this. Miss you," Rose finally whispered.

"Rose." He pulled back just a little so he could look at her. He had to tell her, had to explain to her what was going on and find out what had happened to her, how she had found her way back, but he didn't know where to start.

She put her fingers to his lips, silencing him. She just stared at him for a moment, finally bringing her hand up to cup his face. He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes. It was a moment before she broke the silence and asked, "How long can you stay this time? How much longer till I wake up?"

It hit him then. She believed this was all a dream and, it seemed, it was a dream that she'd had several times.

" Please, I just want to go back. I don't want this anymore; it hurts too much when I finally wake up." Her voice shook and she buried herself further into his shoulder.

"Go back where, Rose?" The Doctor had to work to speak around the choking emotion of his concern for her.

She had turned to look up at him, her voice quiet as she said, "If I can't come Home, I need to go back home."

"Home, Rose? Where is home?" he pressed, knowing the answer but needing it confirmed.

"Home is-"

Before she could finish, he felt a tug starting in his navel and the darkness that surrounded him began to dissipate. He was waking up, he could tell. But he didn't want to, not just yet. He felt Rose's arms loosen their grip around his chest and, for a moment, he was caught between the dark world that Rose currently inhabited and the light of the TARDIS.

He struggled to stay with Rose, to work out with her how and why she was there and how they could make her stay. But it was no use. The last thing he saw was Rose's shocked look and her cry of disbelief as he disappeared out of sight.


End file.
